Bangkok tops a lot of lists, and its first-place position on ’s latest ranking of the world’s best cities for nightlife comes as no surprise to us locals.
We Bangkokians are proud night owls, and we’re blessed with a city that actually runs seven nights a week. Mondays stay quiet enough to chat with the bartender, while Saturdays will have you queueing a dozen deep for a drink.
You’ll find a room for every mood and every kind of night out in the Thai capital. A night out here never stays in one place – you start in a dark little cocktail bar with no sign on the door, move up to a rooftop strung with plants and fairy lights, then end up in a Silom club, dancing until the sky turns light. Each spot draws its own crowd and runs by its own rules. Here are a few of my favourites.
Bar Us
Let’s start with a drink. Tucked down Sukhumvit 26, Bar Us is a pitch-black cocktail lab: you push through a glass door and the room drops away into near-total darkness. Walls, ceiling, tables – all black. The only light falls on the bartenders in crisp white coats, herbs and glassware laid out on the counter in front of them. There are just 14 seats, so settle in close and watch them work.
Co-founders Taln Rojanavanich and Aum Sawaengsupt taught themselves mixology on graveyard shifts at their backpacker hostel. The savoury cocktails are the draw, featuring fermented fish paste, nam prik (spicy Thai pastes), and other gloriously unhinged ingredients. The crowd skews sexy and industry-heavy.
Tep Bar
Down a side alley off Soi Nana in Chinatown, Tep Bar has no sign out front, but follow the sound of live Thai music and you’ll soon reach the door. Inside the restored shophouse, the lighting is low and the fittings are gold-toned, and the owners run the place partly to keep old Thai crafts going.
Drinks are built around Thai spirits, above all ya dong, a potent herb-infused rice whisky poured either neat, as a flight of shots you knock back one after another, or blended into cocktails – with prawn crackers and sour pickled fruits to pick at alongside, as is tradition. From Friday to Sunday a local band sets up on the small stage at 7pm and opens with traditional pieces on classic Thai instruments; by mid-evening the tables have filled and the room is loud.
Clutch Bar
Clutch Bar sits on the third floor of The Warehouse, an old building on Charoen Krung Road in Talat Noi that stood empty for more than 30 years before a recent rework filled it with a cafe, bar, market and art space. Find it by climbing the stairs past the ground-floor shops to the third floor.
The owners took the name from the gears in old cars, and the room is fitted out to match: raw concrete walls left as they were, shelves of vinyl records and vintage speakers and audio gear stacked around. This spot can quickly evolve from laidback hangout space to full-scale rave, depending on what’s on. Mid-century chairs add the only real colour in the room, aside from the clientele’s exceptional fashion choices, of course.
Tichuca
Take the lift up to Tichuca, which spreads across floors 46 to 50 in Thonglor’s T-ONE Building. The doors open onto the bar, but it feels more like a jungle: columns shaped like branches, greenery hanging overhead and a canopy across the ceiling. The Bangkok skyline is visible past the leaves and there’s an always-warm breeze moving through at that height.
It’s one of the busier rooftops in the city, more a place for a big group night than a quiet drink and plenty of newer bars have copied the look. What sets it apart is the tall tree behind the bar, wrapped in LED lights that change colour through the night. Touristy, sure, but the view earns it.
What’s Happened?
On the fifth floor of Emsphere, in the Em Wonder zone, What’s Happened? packs out all week, with the queue stretching longest at weekends. The look is glamorous and just a touch lavish, from the entrance hallway through to the main room – so my tip is to leave the flip-flops at home and turn up in something a bit smarter.
Early on, it plays it cool, then the energy climbs as the DJs take over and the room tips into a proper party. One thing worth knowing: keep an eye out for the collaborative events tied to the Infinitude installation, which usually bring a fresh creative twist on top of the music.
Sala Saneha
Not every great night has to be messy, and Sala Saneha is proof. Sala Saneha fills a 70-year-old building on Decho Road in Silom, keeping the original structure intact across three floors that hold an independent cinema, wine bar, bookshop and library.
The second floor is lined with wood panelling and a small collection of books donated by the founders and their friends – politics, art and culture – which you’re free to pull off the shelf and read, alongside rotating works by local artists. Downstairs, the restaurant brews fragrant Chinese tea through the day and switches to wine at night, with more than 2,000 bottles on the list.
At the top is a 25-seat cinema fitted with armchairs and small side tables, so you can carry a drink in and set it down while a chosen indie or classic Thai film plays twice a day. It’s calm and easy to lose an hour or two in.
Bar Temp.
Bar Temp. comes from a crew of nightlife veterans and bar owners, among them the people behind More Rice Records and Human Spectrum, plus familiar faces from the late Never Normal Club. The room is arranged around the DJ booth, the lighting kept low, with the focus on the sound rather than bottle service or bright lights.
The Martin Audio system is the point: the bass carries up through the floor and every part of the track stays clear even when it’s loud, so the crowd hears the set the way the DJ does. The music stays underground and electronic – mostly house, techno, minimal techno and deep house, with room for more leftfield stuff. Turn up ready to listen.
Silom Soi 4
Let’s end where Bangkok’s queer nightlife runs deepest. Silom is the centre of the city’s LGBTQ+ nightlife scene, and Silom Soi 4 packs its short lane with gay bars and clubs, tables spilling out onto the street and music coming from several doors at once. The Stranger Bar bills itself as the house of drag: run by a former Drag Race Thailand contestant, queens are on stage every night and the front tables fill early for a clear view.
A short walk away, HORN is closer to a Berlin basement than a standard club – bare concrete walls, techno and a crowd there for the music. Over at Silom Edge, BEEF. BKK is the base for the bear and muscle scene; the decor is stripped-back and industrial, but the welcome is warm and body-positive from the door, whether or not you fit the type.
Our pick of the best nightclubs in Bangkok.
🪩 Read the full list of ’s Best Cities for Nightlife with Intrepid Travel.
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